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Daily Archives: January 24, 2011

1. After reviewing the tape of Saturday’s Rutgers-Seton Hall game, it’s obvious that Jeremy Hazell is not near 100 percent. He missed the rim more times in 40 minutes than maybe in his whole career combined. Most of his shots were contested—Dane Miller’s defense on him was excellent—but that’s never bothered him much in the past, a couple of air balls were open looks, and his inability to go left was a major detriment. You can’t blame Jeremy for not taking a redshirt year—he’s going to be 25 in March—but all things being equal a redshirt would have been the prudent course.

2. Now that Pitt has climbed to No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, Saturday night at the RAC could be a circus, especially if Rutgers somehow beats Cincinnati on the road Wednesday (tough matchup—Cincy is deep and big). Either way the raucous RAC of old, which has been in mothballs for the better part of four years, seems poised for at least a one-night return.

3. Had a nice Sunday chat with former Rutgers assistant Darren Savino, who is thriving on Mick Cronin’s staff in Cincinnati. As one would expect Darren is handling the scouting for the RU game, and he expressed how happy he is that the Scarlet Knights’ three seniors are experiencing a degree of success. Look for a feature on Darren to run in Wednesday’s Gannett New Jersey papers.

Excellent Sports Illustrated feature on Newark native Kenneth Faried, who has overcome all kind of obstacles to lead the nation in rebounding at Morehead State (there was some insider talk two years ago of Faried transferring to Seton Hall): THE GIFT OF GRAB

Weird incident at West Virginia, where a reserve forward apparently quit the team at halftime. Here is what the Charleston Gazette reported along with colorful quotes from Bob Huggins: “Never to be seen again, I guess”

Slightly off the topic, but this patch.com report on Villanova’s exploration into upgrading its football program has created a bit of a dustup in the Philly area: Move to D-I seen as likely

Last call for tickets to the New Jersey Sports Writers Association’s annual awards banquet, which takes place Sunday at the Pines Manor in Edison. Anne Donovan, Eric Murdock, Geoff Billet and Tasha Pointer are among the hoops luminaries on the docket. Here is the website with more information: http://www.njsportswriters.org/

To my colleagues, I am sorry that I got all media banned from all Somerset County Tournament seeding meetings.

To boys basketball coaches, I am sorry if my blogging on the discussion at last year’s meeting caused you angst.

To the select athletic directors who pushed hard for the ban, I am sorry to see your paranoia has climbed to new levels.

Wednesday will mark the one-year anniversary of the brouhaha. I had attended the meeting for a number of years, but I never saw contention about the seeds rise to the level it reached last year. I assumed it was fair game to explain to readers how the seeds ended up the way they did. Apparently no one else saw it as fair game. So, my mistake.

Going forward, this could have been rectified in a simple, fair manner. The ADs could have made it clear: If you come to this meeting, you must agree that all discussion is off the record. I would have agreed, of course.

Instead I got sent to the corner with a dunce cap, and so did my colleagues who had nothing to do with it. And now I must rely on a couple of friendly coaches to pass little notes to the dunce in the corner so I can figure out what took place at this year’s meeting.

With that off my chest, below is how I would seed this field. Unlike past years, I have not seen most of these teams play. However, I have been following along closely. Keep in mind that Tuesday’s results will impact things:

1. Gill St. Bernard’s (11-2): Lock, stock and barrel. It will be mighty surprising if anyone picks them off.

2. Rutgers Prep (9-2): Just one local loss, to Gill. Is Tim Ortelli cooking up something special for a potential rematch?

3. Hillsborough (9-3): A sweep of Franklin would stamp the Raiders as the top public-school squad. A loss Tuesday could drop them down.

4. Bound Brook (15-0): You can’t ask for any more than perfection. Only small-school bias will keep them from the double-bye.

5. Franklin (7-2): Streaking Warriors can make a case to move up with a win over Hillsborough Tuesday.

6. Immaculata (7-6): Credit the Spartans for loading up the non-conference schedule. Will have a chance to avenge Bridgewater loss on Tuesday.

7. Bridgewater (7-5): Would move up one spot with a win at Immaculata Tuesday, completing a season sweep.

8. Montgomery (9-4): The tough thing about dropping down a division is fewer chances to prove yourself. Losses to B-R and Lata linger.

9. Ridge (5-8): Better than they’re record, but a losing ledger is tough to overcome come seeding time. Will be a tough out.

10. Somerville (8-3): Early head-to-head loss to Ridge is hard to shake.

11. Bernards (7-4): Split with Pingry, but better record gets the nod.

12. Pingry (5-7): See above.

13. North Plainfield: (3-8): Could flip-flop with Watchung Hills if you like.

14. Watchung Hills (2-10): They’re better than this, but the record hurts.

15. Manville (2-9): No explanation needed.

16. Somerset Tech (0-9): No explanation needed.

It was a very good week for:

Franklin, which made it seven straight victories with a 62-57 decision against Ridge and is poised for a rematch with Hillsborough at home Tuesday.

Sal Vitello, who sparked the Panthers to victories over Watchung Hills, Hunterdon Central and Perth Amboy. His clutch shooting over Amboy Saturday is detailed by Mike New at his In the Paint blog.

Kevin Ferguson, who led Governor Livingston to wins over Hillside and St. Mary-Elizabeth with triple-doubles in both games. He notched 21 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocks vs. Hillside and 24-14-10 vs. St. Mary.

Odds and ends

If you’re wondering how Ridge was tied with Gill St. Bernard’s with under three minutes left in the fourth quarter, check out this interesting recap here at the Red Devils’ website. Note the reference to Ridge’s student section. The one issue Gill will have to deal with in the county tourney is big fan contingents from the public schools.

There are several key games on tap for this week. Mike New runs down the list and offers his breakdowns: http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/inthepaint/. We would add Bridgewater-Immaculata to the list. There’s a lot of history to this rivalry and the No. 6 seed in the SCT is at stake.

Speaking of rivalries, here are the five best local ones over the past decade or so, in no particular order:

Bridgewater-Immaculata: In its heyday this was by far the best, with sellouts and opposing student sections that went at it as hard as the players.

Plainfield-Linden: They’ve faced off in more big games in the county and state tourneys than just about anybody else we can think of.

Montgomery-Hillsborough: Border war, typically close games, and both programs have risen along a similar arc.

Scotch Plains-Westfield: Another border war featuring games that usually come down to the final two minutes.

New Providence-Governor Livingston: Same as above, except they only meet once a year, which adds to the intensity.

HOOPS HAVEN’S ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 BALLOT

1. Ohio State (20-0)

2. Duke (18-1)

3. Pittsburgh (19-1)

4. Kansas (17-1)

5. San Diego State (20-0)

6. Connecticut (16-2)

7. Villanova (17-2)

8. Texas (16-3)

9. Syracuse (18-2)

10. BYU (19-1)

11. Missouri (17-3)

12. Purdue (17-3)

13. Minnesota (15-4)

14. Notre Dame (16-4)

15. Wisconsin (15-4)

16. Texas A&M (17-2)

17. Washington (15-4)

18. Illinois (15-6)

19. Kentucky (15-4)

20. Arizona (16-4)

21. Florida State (15-5)

22. Vanderbilt (14-4)

23. Cincinnati (17-3)

24. Florida (15-4)

25. West Virginia (13-5)

Dropped out: No. 17 Michigan State (12-7), No. 19 Louisville (15-4), No. 22 St. Mary’s (17-3) and No. 23 Georgetown (14-5).Also considered: Michigan State, Georgetown, Georgia (14-4), North Carolina (13-5), Xavier (13-5).Notes: Not a ton of major movement this week. Continued to rank West Virginia despite a loss to Marshall because it’s a rivalry game and Marshall is having a nice season. Dropping Michigan State is a tough call. We’re know they’re good but the Spartans have to be punished for having seven losses after a two-loss week. I know Georgetown’s RPI is sky-high and they’ll continue to make the poll but I just was not impressed after seeing the Hoyas in person twice last week. Louisville is out after taking a bad loss to Providence.

About the Author

Jerry Carino has covered sports for the Gannett New Jersey newspapers since 1996 and has been on the college basketball beat since 2003. A native of Old Bridge, he also teaches journalism at Kean University.Email Jerry.